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Dr. Austin to interview on HUFF POST LIVE

The HuffingtonPost.com enormously successful HUFFPOST LIVE show will interview the Perlan Mission II aeronauts and Principal Meteorologist this Monday January 6th at 12.30pm EST.

Beaverton, January 4th, 2014 – Perlan Project Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit aeronautical exploration and atmospheric science research organization that utilizes sailplanes (gliders) designed to fly at extremely high altitudes invites everyone to tune in to HUFFPOST LIVE this Monday January 6th, at 12.30pm EST (link: http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/the-perlan-mission-ii-project-seeks-to-go-into-the-ozone-hole/52a718e602a7605724000034) for a live interview with Einar Enevoldson, Chairman and Co-Founder of Perlan Project Inc., Jim Payne, Chief Pilot, Morgan Sandercock, Pilot and Elizabeth Austin, Principal Meteorologist.

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The Perlan Project Story

From 1992-98, Perlan’s founder and NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson collected evidence on a weather phenomenon that no one at the time even knew existed: stratospheric mountain waves. Like huge ocean waves, these waves of air are kicked off by strong winds blowing over the tops of high mountain ranges like the Andes. These waves of air then shoot straight up towards space. As a pilot, Einar quickly figured out that you can use a glider to ride those waves all the way up to near space. And he set out to prove it. This became The Perlan Project.

In 1998 meteorologist Dr. Elizabeth Austin teamed up with Einar and expanded upon his findings proving that it is the stratospheric polar night jet and the polar vortex that are factors in sustaining these mountain waves allowing them to reach up to 130,000 feet into the middle stratosphere.

In 1999 Steve Fossett, the record-setting aviator, sailor, adventurer and first person to fly solo non-stop around the world in a balloon, heard about it and decided to fund The Project and become one of its pilots.

On August 30, 2006 Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson smashed the existing altitude record for gliders by soaring up to 50,671 feet (15,460m) in a standard glider using these stratospheric waves of air.

And they could have gone even higher!

The problem was that their pressure suits expanded so much inside the cabin that they couldn’t move the flight controls and safely control the aircraft anymore. So they came down, and quickly decided they needed a custom glider with a pressurized cabin.